


Missing IV

by AnnaOnTheMoon



Series: Missing [4]
Category: Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: #PicardNeedsBev, #PicardShow, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 05:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19078861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaOnTheMoon/pseuds/AnnaOnTheMoon
Summary: Rene is on his first assignment when he comes across an interesting signal....





	Missing IV

“I think we’re receiving a distress signal of some kind,”  Ensign Rene Howard looked up from his monitor and over at his friend, Ensign Latimer, who spoke while he was monitoring the communications array.  “The beginning of the message seems straightforward, but the last part is nothing but numbers and gibberish.” 

“Let me see?”  Latimer turned his monitor towards Rene.

“Look. Here, you can clearly make out the signal is being transmitted as a distress call.  It’s a very old protocol, but I guess it’s still valid.  But look at this part,”  Latimer pointed. “This doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen and I was code breaking back when I was a kid!”  Rene studied the numbers on the screen.

“Hmm, something looks familiar about these numbers. Send them to my console? Let me see if I can figure it out.” 

“Uh, sure, but it’s probably just a bunch of nonsense as the signal broke down over time.  Do you think I should alert the Captain about the distress signal?”  Rene nodded.  “Probably a good idea.  It might be nothing, but you know, everything is worth checking out.” 

“I remember reading the _Enterprise_ once found a signal like thirty years ago that turned out to be two-hundred years old!”  Rene smiled.  His friend had no idea that his father and brother had been part of that crew.  His mother hadn’t been present for that mission, but he had heard the stories from his father and Wesley.  He wisely kept his mouth shut and instead turned his attention to the numbers on his screen.

“Yeah, tell Captain Chardon I’m looking at the second half of the message.  The numbers look _really_ familiar...”

“Ok.”

Rene stared at the numbers for what seemed like hours and suddenly, it clicked.  The numbers at the beginning of the message were his father’s contact codes. He had used them so many times at the Academy and every time since when he contacted his father.  It _could_ be a coincidence, but he kept studying it. Maybe it was a message _for_ his father or from someone who knew his father? 

It sounded ridiculous because why would anyone in that quadrant of space be trying to send a message to his father? _Unless_....Rene let his thoughts play out and quickly squashed them.  No point getting his hopes up. Honestly. It was nothing.  Just a weird coincidence. Besides, the rest of the message was strings of random numbers and the occasional symbol with no meaning until he got to the end.  He was staring at his _mother’s_ contact code.  He remembered memorising it when he was younger, before his mother had left on the mission that she never returned from.  He had wanted to be able to send her letters while she was away, and she told him he had to include her code at the beginning of the transmission for it to go directly to her instead of to the ship’s general inbox. 

Was it _still_ just a coincidence?


End file.
